Reorganization at Staff HR delivers excellence through efficiencies

August 17, 2015

We’ve empowered our team to be proactive; to engage with our clients and streamline our processes.

In 2011 the Consulting Services (i.e., HR generalists) and Labor Relations units were merged to create the Employee and Labor Relations (ELR) unit. This resulted in non-value added handoffs and redundancies ultimately leading to process inefficiencies and diminished service quality.

Recognizing the need for change, the ELR Team began reviewing the effectiveness of the combined employee and labor relations model. Work and resources were moved between functional units to simplify processes and redundancies. We also engaged our Labor Relations colleagues at Office of the President to provide us with an external review of current state and recommendations for success going forward.

Informed by a broad staff outreach effort and extensive review forums, we’ve created astreamlined organizational structure and service delivery modeldesigned to transform the way UC Santa Cruz’s Staff Human Resources (SHR) Employee & Labor Relations (ELR) Department partners with the campus. We’ve structured the unit so that ER and LR specialists can be more responsive to change and adept at creating proactive strategic partnerships supported by process experts that possess deep knowledge of core services. This was made possible by streamlining service delivery and reducing the transactional burden so the team could focus on:

Organizational Planning & Training;

Policy/Collective Bargaining Agreement Advising;

Performance Management & Discipline;

Dispute Resolution & Negotiation.

As previously announced, the new ELR structure is effective August 15, 2015. Employee Relations Analysts will serve as a primary contact for staff employee matters. Labor Relations Analysts will collaborate with Employee Relations Analysts when called upon to provide services in the area of Labor Relations. Combined with our new specialized experts, SHR as a whole is able to respond to dynamic situations by quickly applying the best support mix.

We are excited for the opportunity to rededicate ourselves; to make our efforts more strategic and improve campus-wide HR practices, systems and policies. It is our primary goal to establish a human resources culture of support, collaboration, and partnership and to serve as a key advisor, partner, and counselor for our campus leaders and managers on critical human resources matters.

For more information regarding the new ELR structure and specific unit assignment and services, please visit: